Young vandals cause $30,000 worth of damage to cars

Jessica Grewal
Senior Reporter APN Newsdesk NSW Bureau
Working from Sydney, Jessica specialises in crime/court reporting, filing for APN’s regional mastheads in Northern NSW as well as providing national content for the group.
She was previously Chief Reporter at the Fraser Coast Chronicle in Hervey Bay, Queensland where she grew up and trained.
Early in her career, she was named Queensland Young Journalist of the Year at the Clarion Awards.
More recently, she was finalist at the 2013 Kennedy Awards for Excellence in NSW Journalism in both the...

A CAR sales manager is calling for parents of young vandals to be held accountable after a senseless night of destruction left his dealership with a hefty damage bill.

More than 20 cars (in excess of $400,000 worth) are expected to be off the floor at Wide Bay Motor Group for at least a month as repair work is carried out on kicked-in doors and bonnets and scratched panel work.

The alarm was raised when a neighbour heard loud noises coming from the Torquay Rd business about 1.30am on Thursday.

With teenagers as young as 13 accused of causing the damage, Adrian Eustice knows the alleged culprits are unlikely to suffer any real punishment under the justice system but for him, that's just part of the problem.

He said the attack was symptomatic of a behaviour pattern which was costing Bay businesses big money and it was time for parents to pay up.

Digesting the destruction which had allegedly been caused by "very angry" children, Mr Eustice said it was time for the community to ask the question "where to from here"?

Whatever the outcome of any conferencing with police and the courts may be, there's still the burning questions of "what were kids doing roaming the streets at that time of night?" and "if they could be this aggressive now what are they going to be to the community in 10 years time"?

He said company representatives would be speaking with lawyers and the insurance company to decide the next move but maintained a "slap on the wrist" for the offenders and no financial hardship on the parents was "never going to teach anyone a lesson".

"For too long businesses in the town have been told to take a breath and simply swallow the costs," he said

"It's far from fair and it's far from right."

Two males, aged 13 and 14, have so far been arrested and will be dealt with under the Youth Justice Act.